Dive Brief:
- Omni Hotels & Resorts new CIO Ken Barnes said improving the hotel chain’s cybersecurity defenses is among his highest priorities, according to a report from CIO.
- A recent cybersecurity attack and data breach at Omni Hotels & Resorts affected 48 of its 60 North American hotels, according to the report.
- "I want to make sure that we have our perimeter set up and that we have people watching that perimeter to protect us," Barnes told CIO.com . "[The idea] is to absolutely put applications in place that do more alerting and alarming above and beyond the table stakes [apps]," Barnes said.
Dive Insight:
A post on Omni’s website said hackers installed malware on point-of-sale systems and stole data between December 23, 2015 and June 14, 2016.
Barnes, who started in May, said he plans first to improve protection for Omni's payment processing systems, and then move on to other analytics-based apps.
The hospitality industry has been hit hard by card breaches over the past two years, most often by perpetrators that intercept credit card data when physical credit cards are used in hotel restaurants and bars.
Over the last year, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Hyatt Hotels and Trump Hotel Collection all experienced data breaches aimed at consumers' debit and credit card information.
In November, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide reported that payment systems at 54 of its hotels in North America had been infected with malware. Around the same time, Hilton Worldwide Holdings also revealed that it was investigating possible cyberattacks. In April, The Trump Hotel Collection became the victim of its second credit card system breach in less than a year
